Container simulated toy



April 19, 1966 c. DOUGLAS 3,246,420

CONTAINER SIMULATED TOY Filed April 15, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet l 54 I! Ii54 4,- g

INVENTOR.

LIVINGSTON C DOUGLAS April 9, 1966 L. c. DOUGLAS 3,246,420

CONTAINER SIMULATED TOY Filed April 15, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 H64 1 36m1 WWW] 38 FIG, 5 4M1;-

INVENTOR.

LIVINGSTON C. DOUGLAS United States Patent 3,246,420 CONTAINER SIMULATEDTOY Livingston C. Douglas, Leonia, N..I., assignor to Colgate- PalmoliveCompany, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 15, 1963,Ser. No. 273,046 3 Claims. (CI. 46-11) This invention relates toimprovements in container simulated toys and more particularly relatesto a bottle type container shaped to simulate a truckless railwayvehicle and includes attachable railway wheel trucks for a complete toysimulated railway vehicle.

It is an object of this invention to provide a novel container of thebottle type capable of holding liquid and formed to simulate a wheellessvehicle together with a unique construction for attaching wheels. Moreparticularly it is an object to provide a bottle simulated railwayvehicle with unique wheel truck attaching meanstogether with a one-piecepivotally mountable wheel truck and coupler holding the wheels and axleof the toy.

It is another object of this invention to provide a bottle simulatedrailway vehicle including one-piece wheel trucks and Wheels attachablethereto in practically a non-removable fashion together with couplers sothat one container with wheel trucks and couplers thereon may be coupledto any other container to thereby provide a container simulated train ofsimulated bottle-shaped railway vehicles.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a bottle simulatedrailway vehicle which is easy and inexpensive to manufacture as a bottlemay be molded in the 1 shape of a truckless railway vehicle with wheeltruck attaching knobs, and after use as a liquid container it may findfurther function and use as an attractive toy. The container-toy may bemerchandised as an assembled unit, but the invention is not limitedthereto in that the wheel assemblies may be attachable after use of thecontainer, but once attached it is very diflicult to remove the wheeltruck and wheel assemblies.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of theinvention will be apparent from the following more particulardescription of a preferred embodiment of the invention, as illustratedin the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a plurality of coupled simulated railwayvehicles making up a toy train.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of a portion of two adjacent coupledcontainer simulated toy railway vehicles.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 44 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 55 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a wheel truck, coupler and wheelassembly.

Referring now to the drawings, a toy train 10 as shown in FIG. 1, may bemade up from a plurality of interconnected bottle simulated toy railwayvehicles of this invention. For example, the train 10 may include abottle simulating a diesel engine 12 coupled to a bottle simulating atank car 14 which, in turn, may be coupled to any number of other typet-oy railway vehicles such as a caboose 16 or the like. Thus, a childmay make an entire train and have an interesting plaything fromotherwise discarded bottles.

As shown in FIG. 2, the container is of the bottle type and includes ahollow enclosed body 18 capable of holding liquid. The body 18 of thebottle may be molded or formed in a conventional manner so long as theoutside surface of the body simulates or is shaped and formed like arailway vehicle. The bottle also includes a suitable filling opening 20,such as the threaded opening shown, capable of receiving a closure cap,such as a screw cap, not shown. It is contemplated that the bottle wouldinitially be filled with a merchandisable material such as liquid soapthat children use for taking baths, or any other suitable material.

Each container is shaped and formed to look like the exterior of anindividual railway vehicle and is molded in one piece without the truckand wheel units of a normal railway vehicle. On a side of the bottlebody 18 corresponding to the bottom of the simulated truckless railwayvehicle, there are a pair of projecting knobs '22, best seen in FIG. 5,which extend from the container generally in the position a railwaytruck assembly would be related to a normal railway vehicle. Fastened toeach projecting knob 22 is a wheel truck, coupler and wheel assembly 24such as shown in FIG. 6, for example. Normally, the wheel truck, couplerand wheel assembly 24 would be already assembled on the projecting knob22 at the time of the original merchandising. Once the wheel truck hasbeen connected to car 'body 18, they can be separated only with extremedifficulty and with the probability of destroying the knob 22 and/orwheel truck for further assembly purposes.

The knob 22 includes a reduced neck portion 26 and an enlarged button orbulbous tip portion28. The wheel truck, coupler and wheel assembly 24includes a one-piece wheel truck and coupler support 30, molded, forexample, from high impact styrene, with a cross portion or bolster 32having a chamfered vertical hole 34 centrally therein for receiving theknob 22. As shown in FIG. 5, the bulbous tip or button portion 28 of theknob 22 is of larger diameter. Thus, the wheel truck, coupler and wheelassembly 24 is pushed over the tip portion 28 and then may pivot aboutthe center of knob 22 with the hole 34 around the reduced neck portion26.

In addition, the one-piece wheel truck and coupler support 30 includesdepending truck side frames 36, each having simulated journal boxes 38and simulated springs 40. Within each journal box 38 is a bore 42functioning as a journal bearing for a rigid wheel and axle 44. Therigid wheel and axle includes a pair of wheels 46, 46, secured to anaxle 48 with the ends of the axle being journaled in the bearing bores42, 42. The wheel and axle 44 may be assembled in the wheel trucksupport 30 by sliding it up a groove, see FIG. 4, leading from thebottom edge of the side frame 36 to the bearing bore 42.

For coupling purposes the one-piece wheel truck and coupler supportincludes an extending channel-shaped coupler arm 50. Each coupler armincludes a hole 52 in the flat outer end thereof and a depending malecoupler pin 54 of slightly less diameter than hole 52. The coupler pinextends a short distance downwardly and is substantially perpendicularto the coupler arm 50. As shown, for example, in FIGS. 2 and 3, thesimulated railway cars are coupled together by inserting a coupler pin54 into a coupler hole 52 of a coupler arm 50 on another simulatedrailway car. Also, as shown in FIG. 2, the length of the coupler arms 50is such that they extend beyond the filling neck 20 and prevent thenecks from interfering with the articulation of the train cars.

It is believed that the operation of the invention is evident from theforegoing description. Individual bottle bodies 18 simulating trucklessrailway vehicles have wheel truck, coupler and wheel assemblies 24applied thereto, and separate simulated vehicles may be coupled anduncoupled as a toy train. The individual cars of the train willarticulate about the knobs 22 and coupler pairs 52 of each wheel truckassembly so that the train can go around curves in a track or imaginarytrack.

While the invention has been particularly shown and 3 described withreference-to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may bemade therein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

What is claimed is:

1. A container simulated toy railway vehicle compris- (a) a hollowcontainer of the bottle type capable of holding liquid and being moldedas a one-piece unit,

(b) means defining an irregular outer surface on the hollow moldedcontainer shaped to simulate a truck less railway vehicle,

(c) a filling opening in one end of the container, the filling openingbeing capable of receiving a closure p,

(d) a pair of spaced depending wheel attaching projections extendingfrom a side of the container which simulates the bottom of the trucklessrailway vehicle,

(e) a one-piece wheel truck and coupler arm unit attached to eachprojection, said coupler arm unit being integral with said wheel truck,coupling means on an extending end'of each coupling unit so that onesimulated railway vehicle container may be coupled to another in themanner of a railway train,vand

(f) a wheel and axle means journaled in each one-piece wheel truck unit.

2. A container simulated toy railway vehicle compris- (a) a hollowcontainer of the bottle type capable of holding liquid,

(b) means'defining an irregular outer surface on the container, theirregular outer surface formed to simulate a' truckless railway vehicle,

(c) means defining a filling capable of receiving a closure member inone end of the container,

(d) a pair of spaced button-shaped knobs extending from a side of thecontainer which simulates the bottom of the truckless railway vehicle,each knob being in a position generally corresponding to which railwaytrucks would be attached to the simulated truckless vehicle,

(e) a one-piece wheel truck unit attached to each knob, the wheel truckunit including a cross top bolster with a hole therein to receive theknob, and a pair of depending simulated side frames with journals toreceive wheel and axle units,

(f) a coupler arm integral with each one-piece wheel truck unit andextending therefrom,

(g) a depending coupler pin integral with the tip of each coupler arm,and means defining a receiving a hole in each coupler arm of a diameterslightly larger than the coupler pin and spaced therefrom so that eachcoupler arm of each wheel unit may couple to another wheel truck unit ofanother container simulated toy, and

(h) a pair of rigid wheel and axle units journaled in each one-piecewheel truck unit.

3. A container simulated toy railway vehicle as defined in claim 2wherein the coupler arm of each wheel truck unit is of sufiicient lengthto extend beyond the filling opening of each container.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,507,663 9/1924Carley et al. 46-11 3,120,080 2/1964 Hahn 46221 3,154,882 11/1964Bossiere 46--11 FOREIGN PATENTS 808,440 4/ 1951 Germany.

888,820 2/ 1952 Great Britain.

RICHARD C. PINKHAM, Primary Examiner.

1. A CONTAINER SIMULATED TOY RAILWAY VEHICLE COMPRISING; (A) A HOLLOWCONTAINER OF THE BOTTLE TYPE CAPABLE OF HOLDING LIQUID AND BEING MOLDEDAS A ONE-PIECE UNIT, (B) MEANS DEFINING AN IRREGULAR OUTER SURFACE OFTHE HOLLOW MOLDED CONTAINER SHAPED TO SIMULATE A TRUCKLESS RAILWAYVEHICLE, (C) A FILLING OPENING IN ONE END OF THE CONTAINER, THE FILLINGOPENING BEING CAPABLE OF RECEIVING A CLOSURE CAP, (D) A PAIR OF SPACEDDEPENDING WHEEL ATTACHING PROJECTIONS EXTENDING FROM A SIDE OF THECONTAINER WHICH SIMULATES THE BOTTOM OF THE TRUCKLESS RAILWAY VEHICLE,(E) A ONE-PIECE WHEEL TRUCK AND COUPLER ARM UNIT ATTACHED TO EACHPROJECTION, SAID COUPLER ARM UNIT BEING INTEGRAL WITH SAID WHEEL TRUCK,COUPLING MEANS ON AN EXTENDING END OF EACH COUPLING UNIT SO THAT ONESIMULATED RAILWAY VEHICLE CONTAINER MAY BE COUPLED TO ANOTHER IN THEMANNER OF A RAILWAY TRAIN, AND (F) A WHEEL AND AXLE MEANS JOURNALED INEACH ONE-PIECE WHEEL TRUCK UNIT.